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Has there ever been a time when learning was more important? I won’t belabor the
basics here since I feel confident you are well familiar with them. But, just for the
sake of setting context, here is a brief, high-level overview of the playing field:
Change is constant and rapid. The world is shrinking as the global village
continues to evolve at warp speed. Distance and scale are rapidly diminishing in
importance when it comes to the dissemination of ideas, services, products, etc.
Competition is global and flattening.
Access to radically expanded and competitively priced pools of skilled talent is
and will continue to be disruptive to traditional business models. Thus, a
premium is placed on talent with advanced analytic, creative and relational skills.
Success, while undoubtedly a factor of quality of products and services, lies primarily
in the consistent and recurrent generation of surprise and delight within
the transactional and relational dynamics of human interactivity at all levels and
in all dimensions.
That is to say that differentiation lies in intangibles, and intangibles are human. If
we hope to match individual, cultural, and organizational potentials with results
and accomplishments, the time is here to transcend narrowly defined, historical
frameworks to see and understand at the basic level the universality that defines
humanity.
Thus, to be optimally effective in today’s world, we must continue to expand our
ability to understand complexity, innovate on a recurrent and reliable basis, and
build and sustain effective relationships. The time is here for us to seek connections.
Understand distinctions. Speak to and generate innovative solutions for shared
concerns, needs and aspirations.
And, if we have learned nothing else in the wake of Katrina’s devastation, it is that we
must not only learn how to learn better, but that we must also learn how to translate
learning into action and action into meaningfully sustainable results if we are to
survive, much less thrive in, the vagaries, gravity and complexity of this world.
Read the rest of this issue >>>> |
